10 Things I Love About You, Our Readers

Get comfortable because this post is dedicated to celebrating how awesome you are!

I was looking for suggestions on what to blog about and my good friend Jim Hedger suggested that I write all of you a little note to say thanks for all the great comments and Twitter love we’ve been receiving lately. My initial thought was, “that’s a fantastic idea!” However, part of me was also concerned that maybe if I did that you’d think I had just been fired or that I was diagnosed with some sort of terminal illness and giving you my swan song. Rest assured that none of that has happened. To my knowledge, anyway.

With that out of the way, I did think it would be fun to honor you, our dear readers. So, with that I present you with the 10 Things I Love About You.

[takes crumpled paper out of pocket, prepares to read off of it]

You’re Really, Really Smart: Sometimes I feel weird about writing the blog when it is very obvious that all of you are way smarter than I will ever be. I’ll write my thoughts here on a certain search engine optimization tactic or my opinion on what Google did today and then you’ll comment in a way that is far more intelligent and articulate than my original words. And I love you for that. I love that you are kind enough to come here and depart your hard-earned wisdom and to share your experiences. You make me smarter.

You Watch Our Back: When the site goes down, you email, Twitter and call to tell me about it. When you read something that you think I may be interested in, whether it’s about SEO, Gossip Girl or cupcakes, you share it with me and sometimes I get to work it into the blog. When someone has taken something I’ve written and used it to say mean things, you speak up and defend me. When we need help getting something done, you offer suggestions. Heck, when I tweet that I’m having a bad day you email me jokes or cute cat videos to make me laugh. You’re my favorite people on the whole Internet.

You Have Awesome Suggestions: Whenever I’m facing an important decision, you guys are there to help. You’ve helped us pick blog post topics, given us ideas for what to include in our SEO Newsletter, suggested guests for SEM Synergy and helped us choose what to have for lunch (pizza or Chinese? Pizza!). You’re always there to help us over our hurdles so that we can get back to producing great content. You help make us more productive. Look what happened when I asked for suggestions on what to write about yesterday:

You guys rock!

You Submit Our Stuff: I’m not very good at pimping Bruce Clay, Inc. on the social media outlets. There’s something about it that just makes me feel dirty. I don’t have a problem submitting other people’s posts that I find awesome, but when it comes to ours…well, I get shy. And you guys know that and do it for us. I need to bake David Wallace a cake for all the Bruce Clay sphinning he’s done for us. And I owe the rest of you hugs for passing our blog posts on through Twitter, leaving comments on Sphinn, stumbling things you find interesting, etc. It means a lot to us to have such a supportive community behind us. You help increase the number of people reading our stuff and bring more traffic into the site.

You Send Us Presents: This is one of my most favorite things about you! For some reason, you send us presents and we like it. To date, readers have sent Squishables, cupcakes in a jar, books, T-shirts, fortune cookies, things that light up, and various other types of schwag. I don’t know why you do it, but it certainly makes my day. It seems we’re even about to get new presents.

You Call Me Out: Next to presents, this is my favorite thing about you. You don’t let me get away with a lot. If I write a post that isn’t fair, you tell me. If I’ve taken my sarcasm a bit too far, you let me know either in the comments or by email. When I’m whining too much on Twitter, you advise me to get a cookie and move on. You give me the kick in the face I need to get myself back on track and to refocus on the important things. You challenge me to be better. You make me better because you won’t accept anything less.

[Okay, I changed my mind. That is even better than presents. It’s the best present! ]

Guestbloggers: When I went on vacation and needed some folks to step in and keep the blog alive – you were ready and waiting. Ten of you (and one of you had just had a baby!). You jumped in, delivered, and gave our readers some exceptional content. You give us life when we can’t do it ourselves.

You Continue the Conversation: Whether you’re doing it in our comments, on Sphinn or through your own blog posts, you take the conversations we start here and continue them elsewhere. You help spread ideas and enter new thoughts into the conversation. You make it easier for us to engage with others and to introduce more people to the blog and the kind of search engine optimization we believe in. You’re our cheerleaders and detractors throughout the blogosphere and you take us wherever you go.

You Stick With Us: Sometimes we goof. Okay, sometimes I goof. And when I do you stand by me. You email your support. You tell me how I can make things better. You give me the slap on the wrist I need to point me in the right direction. The blog has been through a lot over the past few years and you haven’t gone anywhere. That may make you crazy, but it’s also what makes you awesome.

You Make Conferences More Fun: Don’t tell Bruce, but the reason I like to go to conferences is because I get to talk to you guys. You’re good people and I like getting to see you and joke with you and talk about search. You’re what makes SEO fun for me and I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t exist.

So from all of us, thanks to our readers who make this blog what it is. And thanks to my friend Jim Hedger for suggesting we take some time out of our day today to spend a little time talking about how awesome you are.

And I love how you can make a mushy post like this on an SEO blog and get away with it. I dare to make one myself, only my boss would tell me how I should learn to let go of the “icky” stuff, blpht. He knows I have a tendency to get carried away when it comes to mush, but you, you get to blog about serious topics such as SEO and still wear your heart on your sleeve — an art I haven’t mastered just yet. Keep it up Lisa!

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